


Eye For An Eye

by Calix



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alphys is adorable, Cute, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I suck royally at tags, Undyne is Badass
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-12
Updated: 2017-08-12
Packaged: 2018-12-14 08:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11779500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Calix/pseuds/Calix
Summary: Alphys just wanted to watch her anime in peace. Why did her night change like this?





	Eye For An Eye

**Author's Note:**

> FINALLY! IT'S DONE!
> 
> This is my gen fic for a fanfiction contest hosted on tumblr. Go here for details: undertailfanficcontest.tumblr.com/post/162896091540/fanfic-contest-rules
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this oneshot!
> 
> Cover art to be posted later and this piece is EXACTLY 6k words. At least, that's what word says.

This was it. 

It was time.

The noodles… were finished.

Steam pooled out of the microwave making my glasses mist up as I grabbed the cup of re-hydrated noodles. The flavor packet was already open and at the ready to give my tasteless noodles life. Ooohhh, the aroma that the instant dish made when the packet was added always got my tongue salivating and I couldn’t help but start eating it mid-stir with my own hand-made chopsticks. A loud satisfying slurping noise broke the silence as the noodles slide between my lips. Noted, these instant noodles probably paled in comparison to the real bowls of ramen that are shown in the comic books and animated movies. Though Sans told me that they were just made up mumbo jumbo. At least, he was nice enough to help me make a monster version of the noodles that could be recreated through magical cooking.

It was a lot better than finding the soggy containers in the dump and praying that they hadn’t been contaminated. The dump was great but sometimes I will admit… it can be really gross. That doesn’t stop me from digging through the mountains of trash though.

Taking my savory dinner, I waddle on my little legs over to the large TV that acts as a surveillance terminal and my own personal home theater. After several long days of experimenting with the four human SOULs (progress was slow but hey. Progress!), it will be nice to just wind down and watch the newest anime that I found about a month ago. There was just one more thing that I had to do before I could start my night of binging. Plopping down in my computer chair, my claws flew across the keyboard and the screen came to life. The big monitor was cut off into a bunch of tiny little screens with each one showing a different part of the underground. A small smile spread across my yellow lips as I took another slurp.

This was my current greatest accomplishment… other than Mettaton’s body (though that was still a work in progress, to be honest). An intricate surveillance system that allowed me to look at any part of the Underground with the simple click of my mouse. After the last human had fallen, I had brought the idea up to Asgore so that, instead of hoping one of the sentries found the human first, we would know as soon as one was traversing the Underground. Then all we would have to do is call the Royal Guard to that location. Not only was it more efficient, but it could also save lives. The damage done from the fourth human SOUL… the orange one…

My body violently shivered at the memory. So many innocent monsters had been lost… Needless to say, Asgore had been all for it when I explained that with this security system we may have prevented all that loss of life with a couple of button clicks. So gathering as much technology as I could, I built the cameras, set it up, and even went so far as to have the system alert me on my cellphone if any movement was caught at the doorway to the ruins. Which there was a lot more going on by that door than I originally would have guessed. Most generally it was a monster out for a stroll or an animal. Thank God. I don’t know what I would do if I actually found a human.

Shaking my head to pull myself out of my own mind, I looked back to the big monitor and brought up the first camera, the one that I had hidden in the bushes right next to those huge double doors. 

…Only for the screen to come up black.

That camera was brand new. I built it myself. It had only been in place for a couple of months. There was no way that it could have just died. My claws clicked loudly as I typed out on the keyboard. Running diagnostics programs to see why my camera had decided to not work but nothing was found. All of the programs came back to me saying that it had been working fine until about two hours ago. The worst part is that I don’t have the recording system completely functional yet so any prior footage was long gone.

Letting out a frustrated sigh, I skipped that camera and decided to check on my other ones. There was a possibility that one of the animals had messed with it. That or some teenagers. A lot of monsters weren’t happy with these new security measures. Sure, the adults knew why I had installed them but they still felt as though it was an invasion of privacy. It wouldn’t be the first time that someone had thought it would be funny to mess with them. The first couple of weeks had been nothing but false alarms and stupid pranks. Some monsters would trigger the cameras just to have my phone go off, they left silly pictures on them for me to find, and those were just the tip of the iceberg. Regardless, I stopped texting the Asgore as soon as I got a notification.

Yet, this would be the first time that someone had broken one of my cameras. Pranks were fine. Annoying but, in the end, harmless. There was an unspoken rule among everyone in the Underground. Don’t break any technology. Ever. Parts were scarce as it was so it meant that a simple repair could last months. It all depended if I could find a way to make the part myself or if it somehow appeared in the dump. I could improvise with the best of them but sometimes there was just no way to do that. Sometimes you just couldn’t recreate an essential part.

As the second camera came up on the screen completely black, I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. There was no way that this was a coincidence. Setting my noodles to the side, I flipped through my cameras. Every one coming up black until I reached the second one in Waterfall. Echo flowers sprouted from the darkened earth illuminating the path alongside the glowing waterfalls and rivers. Nothing out of the ordinary but something was going on. I rolled back in my chair a small bit and reached into my pocket for my own home-made cellphone. My finger trembling a small bit as it hovered over Undyne’s number.

Oh, I hated calling… texting suited me so much better but Undyne… she didn’t text very well and if this was a serious situation it would be a lot better to speak so that none of the information got misconstrued. But… what if she was sleeping? It was rather late. She would probably be grumpy and angry and… oh, God, why do I have to do this? Why can’t I just look at my cameras and then watch my anime in peace? Maybe… maybe she wouldn’t answer. Then what will I do? I could message her on the Undernet but then again she might not be on a computer. There was also the possibility that she left her phone at home because she could be outormaybeshewasatthecastleand- “GAAAAH!” With a loud yell, I clapped both of my hands to my face. I just needed to hit the call button. That’s all I had to do. The call wouldn’t last more than a few seconds. That was it. I could do this. I CAN do thi-

“Hello? Alphys?” the gruff but sexy-I mean pretty voice of Undyne cut through my mental pep talk and thoroughly froze me to the spot. Undyne was talking to me. I had called Undyne. Gorgeously confident blue fish monster who could bench press several times above her own body weight. Undyne, the one with beautifully vibrant red hair that was a symbol of her fiery personality while having a tall stature that could even compete with Asgore, himself. I had called… UNDYNE. The yellow of my scales promptly traded to become a bright red as I blushed in embarrassment. My heart skipping several beats. Slowly bringing my hand away from my face, I realized that I still held my phone and that when I slapped myself I had accidentally hit call. Well, that was one way to do it. “Hey! You there?!”

“EEP!” I flailed in surprise and my phone slipped from my, now sweaty, claws and clattered loudly onto the floor. “O-oh no! I-I’m so sorry. I-”

“AGH! Ow! What the hell was that sound?! ALPHYS, WHAT’S GOING ON?” Undyne practically screamed through my poor phone’s speaker and I wondered how she hadn’t blown it out.

“H-HERE!” I yelled louder than intended making myself flinch as I frantically scrambled to the floor to collect my phone with anxiety-induced shaking hands. “I-I mean, I’m f-fine! I’m sorry, I d-dropped my phone.”

“Oh. Well then, what’s up? I’m rather surprised that you called me.” The fish monster’s voice dropped several notes to be at a normal volume level.

My heart sank. I shouldn’t have called. This was just a stupid inconvenience. “I-I’m sorry… I know that you are busy bu-”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Calm down there, Alphy. I’m proud of ya! It took guts to call me!” I could practically see the big beaming smile that she probably had on her face right now through her voice. “I’m currently doing my final rounds in Hotland before heading home for the night and it’s been deaaaaad. This is a nice distraction. So, as I asked before, what’s up?”

“Uh… um…” The words caught in my throat. Come on. Speak! “I-it’s…”

“It’s what?” Undyne prompted with a type of patience that most wouldn’t associate her with.

Taking a couple of deep breaths, I calmed my nerves. I needed to tell her. “It’s the cameras.” An intense silence followed and I wondered if I should have worded it better. I heard her breath hitch and the sound of her armor stilling as she stopped walking wherever in Hotland she was.

“Was there a human spotted?” The tone of Undyne’s voice no longer had the boisterous happiness that it had prior. It was calm. All business.

“T-that’s… well, I-I don’t know.” I tripped over my own words at her sudden change in demeanor. I could just imagine the strong stoic face that she was making right now. One that would probably put anyone walking by her on edge and give her a wide berth. 

“You don’t know??” the seriousness was still there but lessened due to my unclear answer. Oh, why can’t I just speak like a normal person?

“W-well, you see… I-I was j-just sitting down to watch some of those human h-history documentaries but f-figured that I should check the c-cameras before I s-settle down for the night, right?” I took a small pause to take another breath to calm my nerves. Opting to hit the button for speaker and setting my phone on the desk because my hands were getting so clammy from my nervousness. “When I brought them up, I f-found that cameras 1 through 8 are all down and I don’t know why.”

“Hrm… Those are all the ones located in Snowdin, right?”

I nodded my head before quickly realizing that she couldn’t see me and shook my head at my own stupid actions. “Y-yes. As well as the first one in Waterfall-” I stopped as I looked back up at the large monitor to see that it, too, was now black. “Make that to the second one in Waterfall. Something just happened to that one too.” I felt a dark ominous feeling start to arise in the pit of my SOUL as a cold sweat started to descend on my scales. Something wasn’t right here. “D-do you think i-it’s just some sort of… stupid prank?” I asked in a tiny hopeful voice. There was still the chance that this was a prank gone way to far but that didn’t help how I felt at all.

“Maybe. It wouldn’t be surprising but I’m already on my way to check it out. Almost at Gerson’s shop.” It was at her words that I could now hear the sound of her armor gently clanking against her body as she ran towards her new goal. When had she started running? “Where was camera 9, again?”

Blushing, I looked away from the monitor that now showed camera 10 as I stuttered out a response. “T-that w-was the room w-with the bridge flower p-puzzle we-”

“Oh YEAH! Setting up that puzzle was awesome. We need to do something like that again.” The smile and light-heartedness was back in her voice and I couldn’t help but smile at her comment. She had fun making that silly little puzzle? It wasn’t even hard. I spent more time breeding the bridge flowers into existence than actually figuring out how we wanted to make the puzzle. Still, it had been a lot of fun. “That means that whoever is messing with the cameras will be on that long wooden walkway right?”

“Yes! T-That or somewhere in that vicinity.”

“Got it! Let’s see just what’s going on! NGAAAH!” I jumped in my chair away from my phone and monitor at Undyne’s viciously loud battlecry. Why did she feel the need to do that when she knew that she was talking into a phone? Oh well, that was Undyne for you. Loud but sincere. One of the things that I admired her for.

It took me a moment to realize that she hadn’t hung up due to the increase of her breathing as she picked up her running speed. “Uh… U-Undyne? Why are you still on the line?”

“Because! You can hear me being totally BADASS if there is someone messing with the cameras. Other than that, if it’s technical I may need your input on what to do.” The smugness and self-confidence radiated through the phone. That made sense. If it was a technical issue, it would be easier to figure out if I needed to make repairs in person or if Undyne could just reset it herself. As for hearing her be badass… well hopefully I could view it on camera 10. Which now that I think about it, I should probably be looking at instead of my phone.

Looking up, I could see the darkened area of Waterfall. The wooden pathway across the water was tranquil to look at. As I moved my mouse, the camera followed the same direction in a slow sweep, allowing me to see the entire bridge. This would make a really pretty panoramic shot if this was a photography camera. Maybe that was something I could figure out how to install later. As the camera continued its journey to the right, I let out a startled scream at the lone black figure that appeared at the very beginning of the bridge.

“HEY! ALPHYS! ARE YOU OKAY?!” Undyne practically demanded but her words fell on deaf ears as I watched as the person pointed something directly at me and fired.

I screamed and dived out of my chair to the ground as the screen spider webbed before going black. My entire body trembled. Fear running through my veins while I slowly realized that I was fine. Whoever was on the bridge had done something to take out my camera… but how had they known it was there? I had taken my time to make sure each of my cameras were hidden very well. Judging by the time period that it had taken for camera 9 to be taken out and then 10… this person was walking the entire Underground making sure to take out any camera that they find. Why? Why would a monster do that?

“ALPHYS!”

“YES!” I cried out as I sat up from my curled up position on the floor. The embarrassment of realizing that I was still on the floor making my scales turn red again. I’m was really glad that Undyne couldn’t see me right now. All I was, was an embarrassment. “I-I’m okay. Someone… there was someone at camera 10. B-but I couldn’t make o-out who they were…”

“Okay, I’m almost there now.” Her voice was serious.

Though her words made me blink as there was no way that she would almost be to the bridge already. Even with her athleticism and speed. “H-how are you-”

“I’m taking the little bird. It was the fastest route I could take unless Sans was nearby.” Undyne came to a sudden stop as I heard her armor clang loudly in protest to her movements. At least, that’s what I thought what happened. I could only guess after all.

“O-okay… Undyne… P-please, p-please be c-careful.” My stuttering increased as did my concern. Whoever they were… they had done something. At minimum, they had a weapon. They may just be taking out the cameras for fun but then again they could be out to hurt people. There was no way that I could verify if anyone had been hurt prior because of the other cameras being offline. But what if… what if this was a human? What if they were killing monsters? Did I just send Undyne to her death sentence? I couldn’t stop the terrified whimper that slipped out of my lips.

If Undyne heard it, then she chose to ignore it for now. I switched to camera 11 and it showed the bright glowing water with Sans’s telescope off to the side. The water making this area significantly brighter because I could see a couple Temmies hanging out but in the end it didn’t matter. Before I could even angle the camera to see who was coming off of the bridge, all I could see was a black screen. Whoever it was… they were good. Very observant. It didn’t help that I was giving my cameras away by moving them but at the same time I wanted to know just what this person was.

“Alright. Alphys. I’m on the other side and about to hit the spot where Sans put his stupid telescope. What do yo-… HEY, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!” The calm business-like tone that Undyne’s voice had been morphed into an animalistic roar as she addressed whomever was in front of her.

“Undyne?” Somehow my voice was even despite the frantic fear and anxiety beginning to overwhelm my being. “Undyne? What’s going on? What do you see? They took out the camera so I can’t see anything-” The line went dead before I finished my sentence. As fast as my body would allow, I switched to camera 12 in an attempt to see what was going on but I saw nothing. The camera was placed too far away and I wouldn’t know what was going on until either Undyne called me back or someone sends a message down the line. That or she would pop in front of it. Please let her pop in front of it.

My heart beat at a harsh incessant pace from the adrenaline motivating my fight or flight responses due to the events that had just happened. I needed to calm down. There were lots of explanations as to why the line had been cut that are completely innocent. Undyne could have crushed her phone in her hand again after witnessing whomever it was that was messing with my cameras out of anger. (It wouldn’t be the first time one of her phones had been broken out of anger.) She could have thrown it to the side. Thus breaking it once again due to her immense strength. Then again, she may have simply just hung up to deal with whatever it was. In the end, there was nothing I could do.

So I settled back in my office chair and got comfortable. If it was something bad then I was going to be the one to witness it. I would stay up for days if I had too. Though, I already had been up for several days straight. It just didn’t help that I was scared and anxious after everything that I had just witnessed. There was so much pressure it felt as though the air was heavy. Hell, even my magic was reacting to it… 

Wait. 

The air WAS heavy. 

It was completely over saturated with raw magic making my own respond in tandem. This wasn’t good. That could only mean one thing and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. Scrambling out of my chair, I hopped onto the ground just as a powerful magical surge emanating from the Core sent a pulse through the immediate area of the Underground, causing my lab to be descended entirely into darkness.

“Oh no… why now?!” I practically screamed to myself as I reached my other computer terminal next to the big monitor I had been sitting at. It too, had been forced offline along with every other piece of technology that I owned save this one terminal. With the way the Core was set up and where it was positioned, magical energy sometimes begins to build up while being trapped by the magical bindings that is used to help convert it into magical electricity. It builds and builds until the bindings can’t keep all of the magic contained and is released in a powerful surge that temporarily shuts down the Core and causes a blackout. The surges are also so powerful that it even takes out my backup generators that aren’t protected by special barriers.

With the barriers being so complicated to make, I only have the essentials put in the few that I have. The essentials being the computer used to mess with the Core directly and the area that housed the human SOULs. That way I could get it back online as fast as possible for everyone but my hands were moving at a much faster speed than normal. Every second could mean disaster for Undyne. Possibly. There was no guarantee. More than likely she was fine and I was just letting my overactive imagination combined with pure anxiety take over like it normally does.

Those thoughts didn’t stop me in the slightest as I went about rebooting the systems of the Core and initiating backup flow to the external generators so that a small semblance of power could return while the program put itself back together. My claws eventually stilled as they ran out of tasks to do. All programs needed were already running. I needed time yet I didn’t have that luxury. 

But there was nothing more that I could do until the Core generated enough power so that my cameras were functional again.

Time felt as though it was at a standstill. The percentage rate on my screen crept up slower than a moldsmal and staring at it was like watching paint dry in Waterfall. Completely pointless. Yet, my eyes remained fixed to the single source of light in my lab as my eyelids began to droop. My body had been at its limit for a long time. That was why I had decided to come back up here in the first place. To take, at minimum, a night to recuperate. With everything going on right now there was no such luck.

Seconds turned into minutes. Minutes turned into hours as I continued to wait for the Core to return power. The backup generators were now functional but only the basics were currently working. It would still be a little longer until everything was brought back with the generators alone. I needed to figure out a way to fix this time issue. This is the first time that this had happened with the possibility of something bad happening at the same time. I never thought about how long this takes because before now it was just a minor annoyance at best. Now the situation could be much direr. It didn’t help that my body was practically screaming at me to sleep.

Soon the power returned and everything whirred to life as they went through the initial startup. The lights were still out. Dashing back over to the big monitor, I frantically looked up to see that camera 12 was no longer working and hadn’t been working for some time. I skipped ahead and noticed that several of my other cameras were out or dislodged from their hiding spots. I picked up my phone praying that there was some kind of message from ANYONE, telling me that Undyne was okay.

There was none.

Lifting my glasses to balance on my forehead, I rubbed my eyes and let out an agonizing groan. If I was so smart then I would have noticed this blatant oversight a long time ago. But no, I didn’t notice until it was crucial. If I couldn’t even handle this, then how am I supposed to act as the Royal Scientist? How could I help anyone? I couldn’t even help myself most times. I was the one that was always on the receiving end when it came to someone trying to help me. Why do I even try? No one came to me to be reassured or talk their issues out. It was always the other way around so long as it wasn’t classified. I was useless and I always would be. Maybe I shouldn’t have even tried. Ugh, now was not the time to let my mind beat myself up. Maybe I should call Asgore and see if he has heard from Undyne or not. She was good at reporting back to him even with the smallest details.

Just as I was about to work my courage up and attempt to call my boss, the sound of metal dragging on tile had me freezing to my spot.

Skreeeee.

What the hell was that?

Skree.

There it was again. Only this time, it was a small bit closer and I could hear that it was coming from the entrance to my lab/home. Now that I looked, the sliding doors had been pulled open meaning someone must have done it during the surge. Because in the case of a blackout they simply just power off and are the last thing to get electricity unless I change the settings to say otherwise. Those doors were heavy too. The lights flickered on and I felt all of the blood drain from my face as I saw just who had made their way into my lab while I had been trying to get the Core back online.

Undyne. The normally tall and confident fish monster was now just a heap on my tiled floor. Her helmet was gone and her flaming red hair was wild in some places while pressed against her skin with sweat in others. The armor on her body was dull and grimy as though she had dragged it through the dirt for a long time. Looking behind her prone form, it looked as though she had done just that. There was a dirt trail mixed with an unknown liquid leading right to my front door and probably created a path of her journey to get here. Her shoulders heaved with exertion as she held something beneath her upper chest from my sight.

“Uh… U-…Undyne…? Are… a-are you okay?” my voice shook as I willed my body to move towards my friend. Well, I would like to think that we were friends. If not it’ll be my own mental image then. She looked so… fragile. Nothing like her normal invincible attitude.

A small breathless chuckle escaped her as Undyne finally rose her head to meet my gaze and I could stop the tears that immediately fell from my eyes. “H-hey, Alphy… bout time you noticed me.” She had on a rather pained grin as though she was trying to reassure me despite her being the one in a lot of pain but that wasn’t what I was looking at. Her eye… Undyne’s left eye…

“I-is that blood?!” I couldn’t stop myself as I ran forward. Sliding to her on my knees to get a closer look at her face. Blood trailed down from under her closed eyelid and it looked like that the effort was causing her pain by just keeping it closed. Now that I was right next to her, I could see that this wasn’t the only injury that she had sustained. Lots of small scratches were on her neck and face. Her armor had protected the rest of her body from similar wounds but it was her eye that was easily the worst of it all. “Oh my god…” I choked back a sob as I gingerly reached a hand out to cup her face. “What... what happened?” my voice failed at the end and I shook my head to regain my resolve. Now wasn’t the time to be a crybaby. Undyne needed serious medical attention. ASAP.

Before I could get up so that I could help her over to an examination table, the strong fish woman caught my arm with one hand while she still held the other under her as though she was hiding something. It didn’t stay hidden to me for very long. I knew what she held before she even fully pulled it out as a vibrant yellow glow seemed to take all of the color out of the room to showcase its own sheer brilliance.

A human SOUL.

It pulsed vibrantly in her hand as I stood there at a complete loss for words so she explained to fill the silence. “Caught ‘em terrorizing some temmies. Chased the human a good ways to the dump before their body finally gave out. I was explaining to them why I was doing this when they took their chance. They lifted their weapon and… bang.” She made a hand motion of a gun firing at her eye after she released my arm. “They must have really hated me for one shot to do this much damage… because they hadn’t touched me before that. Gotta give it to ‘em though. They had good aim.”

Wait… the dump? Then how did… “DID YOU DRAG YOURSELF HERE ALL THE WAY FROM THE DUMP?!” I yelled with my eyes big. She didn’t even have to voice the yes she had given me because the proof was on her armor and in the trail she had left behind. I ignored any other conversation that she tried to start as I frantically got her into an examination room.

Undyne didn’t protest as I got her set up to machines and an IV to check her stats so that I can see just how much damage she had taken. Once she was set up, I took the human SOUL and put it with the others. I didn’t linger in that room. I never liked going in there and even less so now. I knew that I was going to have to research this new color but right now I would rather it had shattered. 

The next few hours were a whirlwind of activity on my end. Undyne had, thankfully, fallen asleep after taking her armor off so that I could do a full physical examination and the only major wound was her eye. However, the intent to hurt that the human had must have been a lot because that one hit had taken well over half of her HP. Despite the amount of time, painstaking gentleness, and my own experience. There was nothing I could do. The damage was so bad that I had to do something that I never would have imagined to someone I cared about.

I had to remove the majority of her eye. The bullet I had pulled out had leaked some of this yellow substance and it had infected the surrounding tissue. It didn’t look dangerous. In all honesty, it looked like it had fused and was actually trying to heal the wound all by itself. It just needed the extra push. I put the bullet in an enclosed container for further study and went back to trying to save Undyne’s eye. But in the end I couldn’t. All I could do was remove the damage and patch up the eye. The result was still the same.

She was going to be blind in her left eye forever.

This could have been avoided if that surge hadn’t of happened or if I had the cameras set up to record and not just watch. So many ‘what if’s’ plagued my mind as I sat next to Undyne’s bedside as she slept. 

I was so far into my own self-loathing that it took me a minute to realize that Undyne was no longer laying down but sitting up. Time had continued on while I had remained stuck. I watched as she gently stroked the bandage that I had placed over her wounded eye. The lights were even dimmed in the room so that it wouldn’t hurt. My tired eyes remained vigilant as I took everything in. Her HP had increased substantially from before but she was still very injured. She would probably have a limiter on her for a while as the eye healed fully.

“Alphys.” Her voice was low and gruff. Heavy from sleep and lack of water. I perked up a bit at my name as she turned to me slowly. “What’s the verdict?”

My SOUL plummeted into despair. I didn’t want to break the news to her. I didn’t want to have to tell her that her eye was gone. However, I didn’t have to say anything. The solemn look on my face was more than an enough for an answer. I watched as her HP max dropped a bit and I winced because I know that I was the cause. 

“Undyne…?” my voice was weak and it squeaked a small bit. I was exhausted. I just wanted to sleep and for this nightmare to end. But there was no way that I was going to leave Undyne alone.

“What?” Her voice was cold but I took it in stride. I deserved it.

“It’s going to be okay.”

“How is it going to be okay?” She cut me off and bristled at my words.

I didn’t fall for the bait. “Because. Don’t think of it as a loss. Think of this as an opportunity. A challenge. There hasn’t ever been a one-eyed Captain of the Royal Guard in the entire history of monster-kind. You’re the first.”

It took a moment for my words to sink in and I watched as the max HP increased as her confidence came back. She turned to me with a dazzling grin that looked way more intimidating with the bandage on her eye. “Y’know what, Alphy? You’re right! I’ll be the best captain of the Royal Guard despite this! This is just a minor challenge and I’ll overcome it with flying colors!” She started to list off the various ways of getting used to only her right eye in combat and I couldn’t help the small smile that formed on my face.

With just the right amount of prompting, she was back to her old self. A little injured but back to her old self nonetheless. I watched her get more and more excited to the point that she almost broke my table with her raw strength. It didn’t matter if she had. If I had been there for her earlier then this might not have ever happened. If I had been prepared she possibly could never been hurt. She had always been there for me and I had failed in the one moment she needed me the most.

I clenched my clawed hands with resolve. I wasn’t going to be the one that others need to help anymore. I was going to be there for the people I care about more often. Starting with Undyne.


End file.
